


Obsidian Chains

by Ryeaugla



Series: Super Smash Chronicles [3]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Metroid Series, Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types, Super Smash Brothers, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Body Modification, Brainwashing, Break Up, Coping, Deus Ex Machina, Dueling, Explosions, Grief/Mourning, Multi, Rescue, Robots, Strained Relationships, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-22
Packaged: 2018-04-21 11:56:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 21,428
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4828253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Following the incident at the recent Splatfest, things are getting strained between Shulk and Robin, to a point where a rash decision is made and something goes terribly wrong as a result. How will their relationship stand now after irreparable damage has been done?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Cost of Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's gotten to be quite lonely in what used to be Robin and Shulk's room, and so the tactician decides to talk to Reflet to help sort out his emotions.

When was the last time Robin had actually looked Shulk in his ringed cerulean eyes?

It had been several weeks since the Splatfest where everything had all gone wrong. The tactician hadn't meant to offend the younger Smasher, but things had just boiled over to a tipping point and this was the result. Could it even be say that the mage and the seer were even dating anymore if they refused to even look at one another? Shulk had started staying over with Samus and Pikachu since the incident, not wanting to even be in the same room as Robin anymore. The bedroom was cold and empty, and the sheets of the top bunk were neatly made and hadn't been touched for weeks. On the bottom bunk, Robin was currently sitting there, his rear leaving a large wrinkle in his otherwise pristine sheets. Maybe he could ask Reflet if he could crash in her room until everything got sorted out with Shulk. She shared the room with Chrom, seeing as they were married, but hopefully they wouldn't mind another guest.

Robin wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't asked Reflet sooner, or why the thought hadn't even popped into his head until now. Still, it was better than spending another lonely night without Shulk. With that, he quietly padded over to the female tactician's room and gently knocked on her door.

"Who is it?" A male voice answered. Chrom, Robin quickly noted.

"It's me... Robin." The tactician responded. "I would like to talk to Reflet." Hopefully that would be enough for the room's other occupant to open up for him. Sure enough, two seconds later, a woman with long white hair that had already been taken out of its twin pigtails and a silken lavender nightshirt and pants was the one to answer the door. She was probably on the cusp of going to sleep, judging by her appearance.

"Hey there, Robin." She mused, looking up and down at the other tactician, who had all of his usual attire still on his body. "You're still fully dressed? Aren't you going to get ready for bed?" After giving a big sigh, Robin began to explain his request.

"...Listen... You know how things have been strained between Shulk and me... right?"

"Yeah, you two haven't slept in the same room in ages. Samus and I were just talking the other day about how she's thinking of accepting Shulk as her permanent third roommate if this keeps up." That just caused the male tactician's heart to sink. Was Shulk really getting along that well with Samus that she wanted him to be her new roommate?

"He's probably having all kinds of fun with Samus' weaponry..." He muttered, trying to muster a laugh. "I'm surprised he hasn't annoyed her to death, frankly." Reflet gave a quick chuckle before continuing.

"Actually, she told me that Shulk's extremely helpful with keeping all the weaponry up to par." The female tactician responded. "He's super careful about all of her power ups and various suit upgrades, and I think she even told me that, with her supervision, he even upgraded a couple parts for her. They're really getting along."

"...It's like he doesn't even need me anymore." Robin admitted sadly. He was sure he was going to be tearing up the more he thought about how chummy Shulk and Samus were getting to be without him. Right before the two had started dating, there was something Shulk said that was pertinent to his thoughts right now.

_Robin, it doesn't matter if you're a guy, a girl, or a Piranhax. What matters to me is that there's somebody who I enjoy being around._

Shulk could easily be falling in love with Samus and out of love with Robin, if he was really enjoying being around the bounty huntress, who in turn appeared to be happy with his presence. The one person that Robin had ended up falling in love with after the incident following which he had sworn that 'he'd never find true love again' was going to fade out of his life and find somebody else that made him happy. Maybe it just wasn't meant to be between him and the Homs.

Maybe Robin just didn't deserve to be happy.

Noticing Robin's dampening mood, Reflet reached out and put a hand on the other's shoulder, staring into his brown eyes with her own identically colored ones. They were the same person, just born opposite genders and in different Outrealms, after all. Because of this, the female tactician of all people seemed to be the most in tune with the elder's feelings. She was the first to realize that something really bad had happened when Robin and Shulk had disappeared for two days when they had claimed they'd only be away for an evening, after all. Once they were looking at one another, the young woman spoke up.

"Hey, I'm sure this will all come to pass..." She insisted. "Even the closest couples fight. Chrom and I have had our moments, but we're still together. I've seen the way you and Shulk interact, and I'm sure Shulk'll eventually realize that he's missing out on something really great. Just give him time." After a pause, Reflet continued. "Say, you can stay with Chrom and me tonight, if you want. It must be lonely in your room, after all." Chuckling, Robin's cheeks grew a bit rosy as he diverted his gaze.

"That... was actually the reason why I came here in the first place, if I may be honest..." He admitted. "You're completely right, it's lonely in my room. I wanted to stay with some company tonight if it was all right with you." The younger tactician smiled as she fully opened the door for the other to come in through.

"Of course I don't mind, but you have to promise one thing, Robin."

"What's that?"

"You have to make an effort to get Shulk back starting tomorrow. I don't like seeing you this way. You deserve better than this."

"Reflet's right." Chrom stated as he stood up and walked over to his wife before putting his arms around her shoulders. "You shouldn't be afraid to get the guy of your dreams back. I know you're afraid because of what happened to your ex-wife, but lightning doesn't strike twice. Besides, Shulk's strong. There's no need to fear for his life."

"...She was too, you know..." Robin grunted and shook his head in disgust. "Besides, you know the reason she died was because of me anyway. So it goes without saying I'm not worried about Shulk in that way." Then what exactly was he worried about? The Monado wielder and the bounty huntress being an item? That was quite shallow of him. No, Robin had to focus on trying to make it clear to the seer that he still cared about him and that he was sorry for being so rude a couple of weeks ago after the Splatfest. It hadn't been his intention to make Shulk that angry, after all. Usually the blond teenager was rather open when it came to jokes like that, but perhaps it was just bad timing which had resulted in the Monado wielder's outburst.

But first things first, he needed to sleep through the night. Seeing as Reflet and Chrom were going to let him stay in their room, Robin quickly got himself ready for bed before getting settled down onto the couch that wasn't in use. For the first time in a while - ever since Shulk left him, in fact - Robin actually slept quite well and without disruption.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another room on a different floor of the mansion, a tall blonde woman had walked out of the suite's bathroom with a green nightgown on and a yellow mouse Pokemon perched on her shoulder. After taking a brief turn to look past a wall, she sighed deeply upon realizing that her semi-permanent guest was still sitting at the same table she had left him at while she went to take a shower. Samus took one look at Pikachu and the Pokemon leaped off her shoulder and zipped over to bounce up onto the gray sweater of the blond male who was sitting down in front of her. The electric mouse nibbled onto one of the shoulder embellishments on the young man's vest, tugging on it twice to get his attention.

It seemed to have worked, as Shulk turned his head and gave Pikachu a quick pet on the head to acknowledge its presence. The Pokemon chirped happily and smiled at the Homs, glad that the other had redirected his attention from his work. The actual intention of Pikachu's task was to make Shulk notice Samus standing nearby with her hands on her hips, giving the younger blond an incredulous look.

"What did I tell you about working too hard, Shulk?" The bounty huntress said as sapphire eyes met cerulean ones. "I know you love machinery and all, but you really should be getting a full night's sleep in order to give your body ample time to relax and recover from daily stresses. Besides, I'm pretty sure you have a For Glory match slated against Douglas early tomorrow, don't you?" Shulk stood up and started to stretch out his arms, the Pikachu having leaped off his shoulder in order to avoid being crunched up between the seer's head and shoulder while he raised his arms into the air to loosen them up. After that brief stretch, he gave a short chuckle as his eyes wandered around to find the Pokemon that had fled, noticing he had gone back to Samus and was sitting on her shoulder now.

"I know, I know." Shulk stated as arms fell back to his sides. "I just wanted to finish working on this gravity coil before turning in, that's all."

"The coil can wait." Samus crossed her arms, a smirk finding its way to her face. "You have all the time after your battle to work on that, but you need to be well rested for your tournament match. Honestly, you spend so much time working on things like that coil... Were you like this around Robin when you two were roommates?" Just mentioning the tactician seemed to have killed Shulk's pleasant mood, causing the teenager to look away while his face contorted into a frown.

"...No, I wasn't." He answered coldly. "Let's not bring him up, though. I'll get ready for bed." And with that, the swordsman set down his tools and walked away toward the bedroom area of the suite in order to get his night clothes. Why had just mentioning Robin caused such a change in demeanor for Shulk? He refused to even look at Robin because the tactician had refused to apologize about the incident after the Splatfest, but just mentioning him was enough to put the Homs into a sour mood? Either way, it seemed to be enough to convince him to go to bed, and that's what really mattered, right?

* * *

The next morning, Robin was determined to get Shulk back, just as Reflet wanted him to do. He knew that the blond haired Smasher was going to be participating in a rather early tournament match today against Captain Falcon, so he hoped to use this opportunity to start up conversation again with the Monado wielder. Sure enough, by the time the tactician left his female counterpart and Chrom's room, he could hear the tournament network broadcast playing through the hallway. Every so often, he heard one of two voices grunting as the fighters exchanged attacks. Both Douglas and Shulk were fighting at their very best, yelling as they matched blow with blow. From the sound of things, both of them had been at this for a while, so it was likely that the match would be ending soon. Robin mentally crossed his fingers hoping that Shulk would win the match, seeing as the Homs would be in a far more pleasant mood and a bit more approachable if he got the victory. All the same, Robin hurried to the arena as fast as he could, hoping he would make it on time before the match finished.

"Smash!"

"Falcon... Punch!"

"...Vision!" A moment later, there was the satisfying sound of Douglas getting smacked in the stomach by the Monado wielder's counter attack, quickly followed by the F-Zero racer yelling loudly as he hit the blast line.

" **Game!** " The announcer's voice shouted. Robin's heart gave a small start as he picked up the pace. He didn't have long to get to the arena at this point, as the match was finally over. " **The winner is... Shulk!** " A short fanfare played as the winner of the battle took a pose and said a short line for a victory speech.

"I can change the future!"

Soon, it was going to be Robin's turn to change the future. By this point, he was waiting outside the winner's circle, having managed to get there in time. The tactician was breathless due to how out of shape he was and the fact that he had run so far and so quickly, but at least he was there ready to greet the blond swordsman when he was finally released from the match. Sure enough, a moment later, Captain Falcon opened up the door and walked by Robin, acknowledging the white haired male with a short wave before heading off to do his own thing. Shortly after, the door swung open again and the butterflies flitted about in the ivory haired male's stomach upon seeing the blond swordsman clad in blue and red. For today's match, Shulk was wearing one of his alternate outfits, the one based on his medic friend back on Bionis, Sharla. Almost immediately, Shulk's eyes locked onto Robin before he quickly looked away and started to walk off.

"Shulk!" Robin called out, noticing that the blond was deliberately trying to avoid him. He paced forward, reaching out to grab his arm. Shulk quickly snatched his arm back from the tactician, glaring a little after doing so. However, seeing as he had been stopped, he didn't want to be completely rude and at the very least acknowledge the other. All the same, he looked rather annoyed with his arms crossed.

"...What is it, Robin?" He answered coolly. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Shulk, please just listen to me for a moment..." The tactician looked a bit sad, as it was easy to tell that Shulk really didn't want to speak to him. "Look, I know I was really insensitive back on the day of the Splatfest several weeks ago. And I'm sorry that I said those things... Will you please forgive me? I don't want you to leave my life..."

"...Robin..." The irritated look on Shulk's face had all but vanished by this point, happy that he finally got an apology. However, his expression had been replaced with regret. "I'm sorry to tell you this but... I'm not moving back in with you." Robin's heart sank into the deepest recesses of his stomach hearing that response.

"What? Shulk, what do you mean you're not going back?" The tactician sounded very upset. "I'll do whatever you want, just please..." He was interrupted as Shulk pulled out a piece of paper from the pocket of his vest.

"Look." He stated. "This is why." Robin gingerly took the paper from the taller male and unfolded it. Once again Robin's heart sank as he quickly realized that the letter in question was one accepting his request for a room change. After a moment, Shulk resumed talking. "I just got that right after the match, hence why it took me a little longer to leave the arena. I'm permanently moving in with Samus now. Maybe you should find somebody else to move in with yourself if you don't want to be alone. I think there are still some other Smashers who wouldn't mind having a roommate." The white haired male was sure he was about to cry. He handed the letter back to its owner as he spoke up, voice cracking from how upset he was.

"...Shulk, but I..."

"...Goodbye, Robin. Thank you for apologizing. We can still be friends, if you want." Not wanting to make this even more awkward than it already was, Shulk shoved the paper back into his vest and hurried away, trying to hide the look of discomfort on his face. At the same time, Robin sank to his knees, burying his face into his hands.

"...Shulk, you don't understand..." His voice was barely audible from his grief and was further muffled by his hands. "I don't want to just be friends with you... I love you..." This was probably the worst case scenario that could have happened. It was definitely official now - Shulk and Robin had broken up.

The tactician now knew that he was never going to love again. Between his wife's death and Shulk leaving him, there was no hope for love in his heart anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 2847 words. What a way to start this new story, huh? Hate to leave you on a downer ending here, but things are going to get rather intense later on. This may probably be the shortest chapter of this story. Anyway, notes:
> 
> 1\. Remember, Robin comes from post-ending Awakening and Reflet comes from pre-time skip. That by default makes Robin older than Reflet. I haven't mentioned it prior, but I decided on Robin's age as 21, which would mean Reflet would be 19. And yes, that blurb about the two disappearing for two days is a reference to Desert Storm.
> 
> 2\. I've left it deliberately open as to who Robin's former wife was. Considering the male avatar can marry any of the female units in Awakening, it could literally be any playable female in the game. Either way, her death kind of scared Robin away from falling in love with any other woman, but Shulk is obviously male. I wouldn't say that the death of Robin's wife scared him into being gay so much as he was afraid to love again, but Shulk's affection was enough to get him to try to love once more. And here we see it bit Robin in the ass.
> 
> Also the only people at the mansion who know about Robin's late wife are Reflet, Chrom, Shulk, and the Hands. This will come into play later.


	2. Screams of Silence

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thoroughly affected by Shulk's actions, Robin wants to get back on his good side again. How can he go about doing that, however?

Even though the day had just begun, there was no way it could get any worse. Robin had completely lost his appetite thanks to the impact that Shulk's actions had on him. Instead, he just wanted to crawl back into bed and cry himself to sleep. His footsteps were lethargic and slow, as if he was exceptionally tired. His eyes were also red and puffy due to the fact that he had just cried for about five minutes straight. His timing could not have been any worse. If he had confronted Shulk sooner, the blond could have cancelled his request for a room change before it was processed. Though Shulk said that the friendship between the two of them could continue to persist, Robin didn't want to just be friends. There had to be a way to win Shulk back.

At this moment in time, however, Robin wanted nothing more than to cry himself to sleep. He had found his way back to his actual room rather than Reflet and Chrom's. Affixed to the door was a light purple Falchion insignia as well as a nail upon which a magenta Monado insignia had been hung prior to today. However, with Shulk moving rooms, it made sense that his door marker would have been removed. If the tactician walked over to Samus' room now, he would not be surprised to see the navy blue Screw Attack, yellow Pokeball, and magenta Monado symbols hanging up there all together. No, he really needed to not think about that. He needed to just lay down and try to clear his mind with some rest.

Robin threw open the door to his room and sauntered over to his bed slowly before throwing himself onto it face first. It was a good thing he always had the bottom bunk, as Robin was not in the mood to climb the ladder to the top bunk right now. As soon as his head hit the pillow, the tactician resumed his crying, knowing nobody would be disturbed by his bawling his eyes out now that he lived alone in that room. The white haired male had no idea how long he had been sobbing, but eventually he tuckered himself out and fell into a sad sleep.

_The tactician's eyes fluttered open slowly, but he wasn't on his bed. He seemed to be laying prone on the grass under a threateningly orange sky. Robin took a second to look around, noticing that there were fires burning all around the plains that he found himself within as well as a fountain of flames rising from a city nearby. On closer inspection, the tactician recognized the city as Ylisstol. What was he doing all the way out here on his own world? Why was this scene giving him a massive sense of déjà vu?_

_But that was failing to address the elephant in that field: there was a familiar silhouette standing with his back to Robin, his body in shadow from the flames burning in front of him. The white haired male tried to pick himself up off the ground in order to hurry over to that figure standing there, but his lower body refused to respond. Upon looking to see what was going on, however, Robin's heart gave a start._

_His legs were missing and there was a pool of blood under his cloak where his legs would have been. What happened to them? Why wasn't he feeling any pain despite the fact that his limbs had been torn off? Whatever the reason, Robin wanted to get closer to the other standing there. Slowly he used his arms to crawl forward, not caring if he dragged his cloak through a puddle of blood._

_"Shulk!" He cried, reaching out for the blond haired swordsman who was standing before him. With a gasp, the Monado wielder turned his head, and it was clear to see fear in his eyes as well as tears running down his cheeks. A moment later, a dark feminine laugh could be heard as a third figure joined them, walking out of the shadows. The third individual was wearing an outfit identical to Robin's, but her hood was up. In spite of this, long white locks fell past her shoulders and glowing red eyes could be seen under the hood. It was Grima with Reflet's appearance, Robin realized._

_"You're too late..." Reflet's voice combined with the demonic tone of Grima's as a large cloud of darkness appeared around her, completely obscuring her with blackness. A moment later, a large shadowy claw came out of nowhere and grabbed Shulk, pulling his struggling form into the darkness before a large dragon made of shadows appeared before Robin, staring at him with six large eyes. "You worthless fool..." Grima's voice was now mixed with both Reflet's and Shulk's. "You don't deserve happiness. You can't even protect that which you hold dear to you, after all."_

_The dark, shadowy hand opened up once again after the voices stopped speaking to reveal Shulk suspended above the black paw, his eyes having turned a glowing blood red and two other sets of glowing eyes appearing on his cheeks. Upon seeing the Homs in such a condition, Robin immediately felt an immense amount of regret and uselessness. He couldn't save Shulk._

Eyes flickered open again and Robin realized that he was back in his own room at the mansion and that it was all a dream. Of course, a moment later, he realized that it was his _own room_. There was no Shulk here to comfort him, nor would the blond haired Homs come in eventually. Robin wished that he was within yet another nightmare, but the sad truth of the matter was that this was the waking world. He figured maybe he should drown out his sorrows in books, as sleep wasn't doing him any good.

With that decided, Robin left his lonely room and started ambling toward the mansion's library. He threw his cloak's hood up over his head in hopes that he wouldn't stand out much with it on. Of course, the large hood of the Plegian styled robe ended up interfering with his vision, not to mention he was distracted as it was. As a result, he ended up slamming right into somebody, bouncing off their body and falling to the ground. A moment later, a concerned male voice with a British accent spoke up.

"...Are you all right?" A hand within a white sleeve had been extended for Robin to take. The tactician's hood had fallen off from the impact, allowing the white haired male to look up at the person he bumped into. It was a tanned male with long, dark brown hair and stubble with a white dress shirt, maroon vest, black pants, black shoes, and a black cape slung over his right arm. Robin knew immediately who this was, taking his hand and helping himself to his feet once again using it before apologizing.

"...I'm so sorry, Dunban." Robin stared into the other's dark brown eyes once he was standing up again. "I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. I'm fine though - only a little rattled at best." The former soldier put down his one good arm before giving some sage advice.

"Perhaps you should keep that hood down while you're walking around." He said. "You might end up hurting somebody by running into them. Fortunately, you ended up running into my good arm." The white haired male rubbed his head with one hand, chuckling weakly.

"I guess I am lucky in that regard... I wouldn't want to hurt you, after all..." After a moment, an idea popped into Robin's mind. "Erm, Dunban, before you go... I have a question for you."

"Go ahead, Robin."

"You know Shulk really well, don't you? I was wondering if there was anything in particular he would especially like for a surprise present."

"A surprise present, huh?" Dunban stroked his chin. "Well, back home on Bionis, Shulk really likes these small parts that could be found all over the place outside Colony 9 known as Blue Chains. I never really understood what Shulk saw in them, but he was obsessed with collecting them when he was younger. I suppose they look neat, but he was always more interested in them than I ever was." After a second, realization seemed to hit Dunban as he remembered that he wasn't on Bionis and it would be hard for Robin to get Blue Chains for Shulk due to the fact that his world was restricted from non-residents. "...Forget I said that. Just machine parts will do the trick. Cogs, gears, diodes... those are the kinds of things he likes." Robin gave Dunban an understanding nod before he started to turn around.

"Thank you for your advice." The white haired male answered with a smile as he started walking away. Dunban gave a quick wave before heading off himself. Whereas the tactician might have been heading for the library before, he had a new destination now.

* * *

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the mansion, Shulk found himself staring aimlessly up at the ceiling over his bed. The Homs slept on the top of the bunk bed, just as he had back when he roomed with Robin. The blond haired male had been resting in his bed ever since he had hurried away from Robin, not even bothering to change out of his red and blue alternate costume as he just lay there in thought, arms curled behind his head while staring at the tiles that made up the pattern of the ceiling.

Pikachu had jumped up onto the bed with Shulk and was curled up asleep next to the young man. Every so often, a softly sighed "Piiiii..." could be heard from the small Pokemon, as if he was snoring. More than once, the thought to move one arm out from underneath his head and give the electric mouse a gentle petting on his back came to Shulk's mind, but he wasn't sure if Pikachu actually minded getting petted in his sleep, and so, not wanting to have his fingers bitten off by the yellow rodent, Shulk did no such action.

Just then, footsteps could be heard as the room's other resident came into sight, hands on her hips as she stared up at the two males on the top of the bed. After giving a loud sigh, Samus spoke up, shaking her head in disgust. "Shulk, you've been resting there ever since you came back from your match. Had I not been watching said match, I would have guessed that you had lost the battle, but I know for a fact that you won. What's gotten you so down and out?" As a result of hearing the bounty huntress' voice, both Shulk and Pikachu rose. The mouse Pokemon gave a quick yawn as Shulk moved to look into his roommate's eyes.

"I'm just feeling really bad because of the way I told Robin about my move to this room..." He admitted, knitting his fingers together slowly and without really thinking about the fact that he was doing it. "He stopped me right after our match in order to apologize to me about what happened on the Splatfest and I repaid him by shoving that notice that my room change had been accepted in his face. I'm afraid that might have been a bit much..." Samus sighed and shook her head.

"That does sound rather abrupt." She said. "Maybe you should go find Robin and apologize for being rude to him." The blonde woman turned around and took a step toward the exit from the sleeping area, adding one more thing. "It'll get you out of that bed at the very least." And with that, she left. Pikachu soon bounced off the top bunk and sprinted after Samus, leaving Shulk alone with his thoughts.

The blond groaned as he felt his joints loosen up once more while he climbed out of the top bunk of his bed. Samus had a point. Not only did he need to get out of bed, but he needed to make it easier for the two to maintain their friendship. Just saying 'I hope we can still be friends' and then running off was not a good way to actually mean what he was trying to get across. And it was for that reason that Samus was pushing him out to find Robin and try to mend things between the two of them.

Shulk was sure that Robin would be in one of two main places: his room or the library. Considering the former might bring too many memories of when the tactician and the seer lived in the same room, the library was a far more likely choice. With that decided, the Monado wielder left to head out to the library. Seeing as Shulk was a bookworm himself, he could find his way to the repository of books blindfolded if he wanted to.

Of course, had he actually done so, Shulk would have ended up completely bowling over Reflet, who was yelling for the Monado wielder the moment she saw him. At first the seer thought that she just wanted to talk casually about something, but as she got closer, it soon became clear that the female tactician was irate. Once she got within reach, a hand went out and whacked the taller male across the cheek without explaining why. In fact, Shulk was very nearly floored by that action, staggering back with a hand on his cheek in the spot where Reflet's palm had connected with his face.

"Ow!" He cried, frowning at the white haired female. "What on Bionis was that for, Reflet?" The woman in question pointed angrily toward Shulk and started to lecture him.

"Do you have _any_ idea as to what you've done?!" She barked. Incredulous, Shulk shook his head.

"I assume this has to do with Robin, doesn't it?"

"Of course it does! Robin's left the mansion!" Shulk's heart did a flip before he resumed speaking.

"Left the mansion? Where exactly did he go?"

"Robin used one of the teleporters to go to one of the connected worlds. He also ended up breaking the teleporter with his magic, meaning we have reason to believe that he made a successful attempt to circumvent the restriction system, as it's completely offline right now." A look of horror found its way to Shulk's face.

"...Considering Robin's own world isn't restricted and he has no reason to go to yours, Reflet, that leaves only one thing..." The tactician gave a firm nod.

"We don't have absolute proof telling us that's what he did, but I have a bad feeling that you're right - Robin's on Bionis and we have no way to reach him." Shulk took a moment to bury his face into the palm of his hands. It was hard to believe that Robin had actually gone as far as destroyed the restriction system and in turn also broke the teleporters just so he could get to Bionis. Worst part, thanks to the teleporters being broken, Shulk didn't have any way of going after the white haired male to drag him back to the mansion. They were going to have to wait until everything got fixed, and the Bionis only knew how long it would take for that to happen. What would happen to Robin while he was stuck on Bionis during that period of time between now and when the teleporters got fixed?

One thing was for sure: once the teleporters got fixed, if Robin managed to survive being on Bionis for as much time was necessary to fix the system, he was going to be severely punished for his actions.

* * *

Robin couldn't believe his plan had actually worked. A little advanced thunder magic was all he needed to overload the restriction system and it allowed him to go out to the Bionis' Leg without any difficulties. He hadn't stuck around long enough to realize that his spell had actually gone too far and part of the system completely fried and ended up blowing up. No, the tactician was well on his way to achieve his goal.

First things first, he needed to figure out where exactly he was supposed to go. Robin's knowledge of Bionis was actually very limited, as it mostly came from brief mentions in books and things Shulk had mentioned about the immobile titan he called home. At least the scenery of the Bionis' Leg was quite gorgeous, Robin had to admit. It was a shame this world was restricted, as people would love to check out the amazing cliffs and take tons of pictures of the beautiful features of the landscape. At the same time, the ivory haired male was in need of help. Which way led to Colony 9 from here?

For the longest time, Robin just ambled around aimlessly, looking for some kind of indication as to where he needed to go. There were all kinds of wild monsters roaming about, mostly Armus, Ponios, and other creatures that were generally harmless unless provoked first. Fortunately for the tactician, he managed to notice a large orange apelike creature roaming around the other side of Gaur Plains and made a mental note not to go anywhere near a monster that big. Had he known it was Territorial Rotbart, a fierce Gogol who was known throughout Colony 6 to terrorize the area he called his home, that would have given Robin even more reason to stay away.

Eventually, the white haired male happened upon a small group of Nopon that were camped out in the middle of the field. Seeing as Robin knew about Riki, he was aware that Nopon were capable of (mostly) intelligent speech. Either way, these creatures had to know where Colony 9 was, and so Robin approached the group of Nopon. The three creatures that happened to be sitting around the campsite all turned their heads and stared intently at the strange young man as he walked up to them. A blue Nopon initiated conversation, bouncing up and down while addressing Robin.

"Hom Hom come over!" He said, continuing to bounce. Robin was about to tell the creatures that he wasn't a Homs, but he eventually decided that it wasn't worth the hassle to explain why he wasn't a Homs. Besides, seeing as both Shulk and Dunban looked human, there wasn't any real difference between the two species when it came to appearances, and so the tactician could easily pass himself off as one of Bionis' equivalents of a human.

"Hom Hom look young, but have white hair!" A pink female Nopon chipped in a moment later. "Young old Hom Hom? Never heard of before!" A hand went up to Robin's head, and he took a moment to rub his hand through his ivory locks before giving a small chuckle as he spoke up.

"No, I'm only 21 years old." He explained. "I'm not old, my hair is just naturally white. But that's besides the point." Robin cleared his throat before continuing. "I was wondering if you three could tell me how to get to Colony 9 from here."

"Hom Hom not know where Colony 9 is?" The third Nopon, a green one with glasses, chimed in. "Where Hom Hom come from anyway?" This question took the tactician off guard. He knew that there were only two surviving Homs colonies, as Shulk had mentioned this fact once before. After a moment, he came up with an answer.

"I'm from further up on the Bionis." Robin lied. "This is my first time being on the Bionis' Leg. Can you please tell me where Colony 9 is?" The Nopon looked a bit skeptical, but they answered him all the same.

"Go through Tephra Cave!" The blue one pitched in. "Lots of scary Vangs! Oooh!"

"Hom Hom should be fine though if have weapon." The green Nopon added. "Tephra Cave that way." With his ear, he pointed in the direction of a bottleneck created by the walls of the landscape. At least Robin had gotten the answer to his question without difficulty. He bowed politely as he ended the conversation.

"Thank you for your support." And with that, he headed off toward the bottleneck, leaving the three Nopon behind. Despite not having a full grasp on the grammar of Common, they were intelligent enough to help him out.

Once Robin got past the bottleneck and jumped off the cliff, he found himself on the edge of the kneecap. There was nothing but limitless sky and ocean in front of him there... At least, it would have been that way if it weren't for a large, imposing figure standing across the ocean in shadow with six glowing red eyes. _The Mechonis..._ Robin thought. He had seen the silhouette of the mechanical titan while fighting on the stage based on this world back in the tournament, which was the reason why he was aware of the giant figure standing there. It didn't change the fact that seeing it in person like this and at such a daunting angle was far more intense. Hands slowly curled into fists as Robin examined the Mechonis in its full glory for a moment. Just seeing this other piece of Shulk's world in its true form filled him with determination, and Robin was sure that Shulk felt the same way at this very spot. The tactician was sure the Monado wielder had been here once before on his mission, thinking similar things to what Robin was thinking now.

But he really needed to get moving. The longer Robin stayed on Bionis, the more likely the other Smashers would find out about what he had done. Of course, the tactician wasn't aware that he had already broken the teleporter back to the mansion, which had gotten the attention of Master Hand, meaning he was already in an immense amount of trouble. Still, upon turning around, Robin found the entrance to Tephra Cave and hurried inside.

* * *

Tephra Cave had a very different feel than the Bionis' Leg. Almost immediately, Robin was accosted with a feeling of closeness on all sides. Whereas the leg was free and open, this cave felt very claustrophobic in comparison. It was also quite a bit darker than the open field he had just come through, but at least there were some lighting features placed every so often to alleviate the darkness a little. A little nervous about what he would find in this cave, the tactician had taken out his Levin Sword from within his robes, holding closely onto it while he traversed the cave.

Taking out the Levin Sword ended up being a very wise idea, as several Vangs swooped in from the sky in an attempt to make lunch out of the young human. However, they were scared off by the electricity that sparkled from the end of the lightning bolt shaped blade. Any other monsters that wanted to get close to Robin and attack him all seemed to be chased away by the weapon. Robin would have aimlessly wandered around the cave's various dead ends and alternate paths if it weren't for the fact that he met several Defence Force soldiers along the way. The Homs were confused by the tactician's foreign attire, but they were helpful all the same, giving Robin directions to get through the cave without hitting any more dead ends and finally get out to Colony 9.

Robin stood there at the top of Tephra Hill for a moment, staring at the quaint little city sitting atop a lake before him. It wasn't quite as breathtaking as the Bionis' Leg, but it was still pretty nice to look at all the same. His heart skipped a beat as Robin realized that the city he was looking at was none other than Shulk's hometown, Colony 9. As much as the tactician wanted to go inside the city and talk to all of the people living in the colony to learn more about them, his goal was to gather some Blue Chains and then head back to the mansion. He ambled down the hill, trying to look for anything that would fit the description of a Blue Chain in the grass. Dunban had said they were just strewn about all over the place outside Colony 9, but he wasn't sure exactly what he was looking for at first.

Eventually, Robin found something that fit the description. It was a silver piece of scrap metal on the ground, but upon closer inspection, there was definitely a blue hue to it. The ivory haired male felt something well up inside him as he examined the part before putting it into one of the pockets of his robe. He just needed a few more and then he would head back to the Bionis' Leg and then to the mansion.

About ten minutes later, the tactician's search ended up being quite fruitful, as he located three other Blue Chains for a grand total of four. He was honestly quite impressed that all this scrap metal was just laying out on the grass for anybody to pick up and take. Hopefully Shulk would get over the fact that Robin had snuck onto Bionis to get these pretty quickly. That meant it was time to head back to the leg and make another trip through Tephra Cave.

Robin retraced his steps through the cave in reverse, making his way quickly due to the fact that he knew where he was going this time. The Defence Force soldiers were confused to see the purple cloaked individual again so soon, but they didn't question it. Instead, they just wished him another safe trip through the cave. Like the first time, creatures that lived in the cave wanted to make a snack out of the mage, but his Levin Sword chased them off. It wouldn't be long before Robin was back out on the kneecap once more. The whole trip to Bionis had gone surprisingly smooth.

There was a giddy feeling in Robin's chest as he found himself outside Tephra Cave on the kneecap once more, happy with his success. However, that feeling was suppressed a little once he remembered the view of the Mechonis that was nearby. Sure enough, it was still looming there in the distance, though Robin would have been very surprised if it wasn't there. No, there was no time to just sit here and admire the view of the Mechonis again. Robin climbed the ladder up to the higher section of the kneecap and looked out toward the leg of the titan, anticipating a sliver of Gaur Plains to be in view past the bottleneck he had come through.

However, something had changed in that short period of time that Robin had spent going out to Colony 9. He had probably spent one and a half hours total maximum being away from the kneecap, and in that time, a notable change had occurred. There were now several silhouettes standing across the entrance to the bottleneck that led out to Gaur Plains. Upon getting closer to them, the tactician's heart skipped a beat as he realized what the creatures were that were guarding the entrance to the leg.

Mechon. He recognized them due to the fact that they had similar armor patterns to that Inkling from the Splatfest.

This time, however, Robin was prepared. He had deliberately brought several Thunder elemental tomes with him to deal with these robots. After all, if he could zap their systems, it should allow the tactician to incapacitate for a long time or perhaps even destroy the mechanical menaces. This wasn't like the Splatfest, where he had come unarmed. No, Robin especially equipped himself to set up for an ensuing battle with these creatures from Mechonis, just in case. Of course, the mage would have preferred not having a run in with the Mechon at all, but there was no avoiding one now. He had to get by these robots in order to get back to the teleporter.

And so, the battle began. Robin dug into his robes and brought out a yellow tome with a four pointed star shape surrounded by a circle near its perimeter on its cover. He took a moment to read through the text as magic started to gather around him.  The Ether of this planet was making for a suitable enough substitute for the magic that existed on his own planet, Robin quickly noticed. A moment later, before the Mechon could actually get close enough to attack, he cast the spell.

" _ **ARCTHUNDER!**_ " The powerful lightning magic was fired off at some of the mechs in front of him, zapping three of them and causing them to fall to the Bionis unceremoniously. There were still plenty more of the mechanical bastards, however. After dodging the claw of one Mechon by jumping back away from it, the ivory haired male pulled out his Levin Sword. As proven before back in Tephra Cave, the electricity that was summoned by the weapon was useful here as well and didn't require nearly as much time to activate. Another incantation for Arcthunder right now would result in Robin being attacked before he could finish. Instead, he used his sword's magic power to zap several of the Mechon, all of which fell to the ground after being electrocuted.

But something was wrong. The handful of Mechon that had been 'felled' by Arcthunder got up again. They had only been temporarily incapacitated and were joining their companions in the formation to surround their target once more. At this point, the tactician knew he was outmatched and had nowhere to run. Oh, if only he had enough foresight to bring an Elwind tome with him as well, he would have used that to spring over the frames of Mechon directly in front of him and sprint off toward Gaur Plains. Granted, Robin wasn't exactly fast and it was likely he'd get caught up to again, but he would not be surrounded by the enemies anymore.

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to be an option here without the Elwind tome. Eyes darted all around to see what the machines were going to do next now that they had Robin surrounded on all sides. As if on cue, several fired lasers at the tactician, all of which were quickly dodged by jumping around. However, one Mechon seemingly had the foresight to shoot at Robin while he was coming back down from a jump, and his laser ended up hitting him in the right calf. The ivory haired male shrieked in pain as the laser made a direct hit with his flesh, causing the poor tactician to have to bounce around on one foot, unable to put weight on his right leg now that he had been wounded.

This seemed to be a cue for the Mechon to close in on the human to attack now that he had been injured. Several saws, claws, and lasers were all aimed at the poor guy, many of which managed to nick Robin's skin or slice into his robe. The tactician knew he was losing, but with a badly injured leg, he had no idea what to do to get out of this situation. Nobody was around to come to his rescue, as he had come to Bionis alone. He was seriously regretting his actions now.

Just then, a claw dug its way into the white haired male's bosom while his thoughts were focused on coming here alone. He screamed out in agony as the decisive attack was inflicted. If those Nopon were anywhere around still, it was likely that they would have heard him. A hand went up to the spot where he had been attacked as he staggered forward, the Mechon seemingly backing off at this moment for some unknown reason. Robin could feel blood oozing out of the wound that lay beneath his hand, and as he took his hand off his chest, he could tell it was thoroughly soaked with blood even though his eyesight was going fuzzy. His strength had already greatly diminished and the mage knew that this was the end. One last thought slowly echoed through Robin's mind as he fell forward.

_Shulk... I'm sorry..._

And then the darkness engulfed the tactician.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5408 words. Yeah. That just happened. Whew, this ended up being a really long chapter by my standards. Anyway, notes:
> 
> 1\. For the room insignia colors, I just went by the background colors for each character on the official Super Smash Bros website. Samus' color is a deep navy blue (Zero Suit Samus is a medium blue, but I went with Varia Suit Samus' color because she's better known for that appearance), Pikachu's is a bold yellow, Robin's is a light purple, and Shulk's is magenta. And of course, the insignias themselves are the ones used in Smash: Samus' Screw Attack, the Pokemons' Pokeball, the Fire Emblem group's Falchion, Shulk's Monado, etc.
> 
> 2\. Anybody who's read the other stories in this sequence would recognize Robin's dream sequence as being very similar to the one from Desert Storm, but with some major differences. The general sequence of events is pretty much the same, though.
> 
> 3\. I did a bit of research going into this and realized that, with the exception of the Love Source that gives everybody 100 Affinity points, Shulk's favorite item is the Blue Chain. It gives him a whopping 30 Affinity points, whereas other 3 star items give him 24 or 22 points. (Also Dunban gets 6 Affinity points from being given a Blue Chain, explaining that comment I had Dunban make about them.) And best of all, it's found right outside Shulk's hometown of Colony 9. Talk about easy Affinity... Or maybe not, in Robin's case.
> 
> So yeah, things are definitely not looking good here. Stay tuned to find out what happens next!


	3. The Face of Grief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Almost a month has gone by since Robin left for Bionis and ended up dying. How is the mansion coping with the tactician's passing? Is Robin really dead?

It had been nearly a month by this point in time. There was no doubt in anybody's mind anymore: Robin, the High Deliverer of Ylisse, was dead at age 21.

* * *

The teleporter took three whole days to get parts for and effectively fix up back to normal. Everybody in the mansion who possessed skill with machinery was encouraged to work on the project in order to speed things up as much as possible. Were it not for all of the help that was pitched in, it might have taken at least a week to get things back up and running. However, everybody wanted to make sure that their fellow Smasher was still all right.

Once the teleporter was fixed and the safeguards were up and running again, everybody demanded that Shulk bring a search party out to Bionis to look for signs of the missing tactician, seeing as he could allow everybody to go through to his world without breaking the restriction system again. Half a dozen Smashers joined the Heir to the Monado, splitting into two groups to look around the Bionis' Leg and adjacent areas trying to find any sign of their missing companion, keeping each other in contact through mobile phones that had been distributed to each of the participants at the beginning of the tournament. Almost immediately once they arrived, some genius had the idea to call Robin's phone, but he didn't pick up. That easy solution had failed, so it was back to the old fashioned way.

Shulk asked that he lead the team that was going to head further down the Bionis, as his hometown of Colony 9 was in that direction. Reflet demanded she be on the same team as Shulk in order to keep an eye on him. It was the Monado wielder's fault that this situation even happened, after all. Because of that team arrangement, they were the first two to find the evidence to what had happened. The grass was oddly discolored at a random spot past the bottleneck heading out toward the kneecap, catching Shulk's eye. Curious, he led the group over to find out what was so weird about that location.

It so turned out that in that spot was a single blueish gray item, standing out among the slightly tinged soil. Reflet picked it up first, gasping as she realized that it was covered in splotches of blood. Shulk's heart sank as he quickly recognized the item in question.

"...That's... a Blue Chain." He whispered quietly. "Those are only found outside of Colony 9 normally..." Reflet turned her head to look at the blond haired male.

"Come again?" She asked. The female tactician didn't exactly get an answer, however, as Shulk pushed his way forward.

"Let me see that." The Homs demanded, reaching out for the metallic object. Reflet was ready to pull her hands away from Shulk until he gave an answer to her question, but she desisted with that action upon realizing that, in reaching out for and almost touching the Blue Chain, the seer's eyes began to glow blue. Everybody in the mansion knew by this point that whenever Shulk's eyes started to glow, it meant that he was experiencing a vision. Therefore, Reflet waited to hear about what Shulk had seen, anticipating the moment when the glow in his eyes would fade out.

_A vivid replay of the battle between Robin and the group of Mechon showed itself to Shulk in his vision. The blond witnessed everything playing out as clear as day. He saw Robin use Arcthunder on a bunch of Mechon and then tried to fend off the rest with his Levin Sword that was sparkling with energy. He saw the Mechon attack Robin while he was dodging attacks, receiving a painful laser beam to his calf. He saw that this move was enough to weaken the tactician to a point where he couldn't properly fight off the machines that were antagonizing him anymore._

_He saw Robin take a Mechon claw to the chest and fall face first to the ground._

With that last scene replaying itself repeatedly in Shulk's mind, he snapped back to reality, skin pale as snow from his realization. Reflet and the others quickly demanded to know what kind of future Shulk had just seen, pestering him for details. The Homs shook his head, eyes still wide with shock.

"...It wasn't a vision of the future." He said softly. "It was a vision of the past." The Monado wielder then explained everything he just saw in the vision with vivid detail for the rest of the group. Everybody looked so shocked and horrified to hear what Shulk had to tell them regarding the male tactician's fate. Everybody knew that he wouldn't be able to make up something so detailed and clear, but it was still hard to grasp. Reflet especially was grief-struck, realizing that empty sensation in her heart that she had been feeling for the past few days wasn't just nervousness regarding her missing counterpart.

No, Robin was really gone.

Reflet ran off without telling anybody where she was headed, zooming away back the way she and the group had come. One of the other members of the group chased after the female tactician, unable to catch up with her despite her lack of speed. Grief had put an odd spring in the ivory haired female's step. Upon realizing that Reflet had taken the teleporter back to the mansion, her pursuer gave up the chase and reunited with the rest of the group to insist that she was safe back at the mansion.

At the same time, Shulk had the blood stained Blue Chain in his hands, Reflet having pushed it into the blond's hands before she ran off. He was on the verge of crying as he stared at the object. "...Robin must have found out that I love Blue Chains..." He said quietly. "He died trying to get this for me... Oh Robin, I can't believe I was so dumb..." The Homs was completely beside himself by this point, sobbing while holding the last remnant of the deceased tactician in his arms. Another group member ended up calling up the second group to tell them about everything - the item that they had found, Shulk's vision, and the immense amount of grief both the Heir to the Monado and the female tactician were feeling as a result of learning that Robin was dead.

It took about five minutes after the second group reunited with Shulk's party and gave their condolences for the grieving swordsman to finally rise to his feet and sadly wander back to the teleporter so that everybody could deal with this in safety back at the Super Smash Brothers Mansion and not in a potential danger zone. Nobody wanted to fall victim to the same fate as the male tactician, after all. And with that, the mission to Bionis had ended.

* * *

Two days later, a small impromptu funeral was held for Robin. It was closed casket due to the fact that the tactician's body was never found, assumed to be demolished by the Mechon that had killed him. The only thing contained within the coffin was the Blue Chain splattered with blood, the single remnant of Robin's last moments of life. Decorating the top of the coffin was the light purple Falchion insignia that had once been used to denote which room belonged to Robin. The tournament was put on hold for the day to honor the fallen fighter, allowing everybody to attend the ceremony and give their last regards to Robin before he was put to rest. Of course, Shulk made sure to go out to the funeral, as he was one of the closest people to Robin prior to his death.

Reflet was there too, crying her eyes out. She refused to talk to Shulk following the discovery, and so the blond didn't even try to approach her during the entire ceremony. Besides, Reflet had Chrom, who was doing his best to console his grieving wife. Everybody tried to comfort Reflet after the wake was over, but nobody approached Shulk, despite the fact that he was grieving just as hard, if not harder, for Robin's death. It was widely accepted in the mansion that Shulk was indirectly responsible for the ivory haired male's death, after all. Of course, seeing as the Monado wielder hadn't actually played any direct part in the actions which had led to Robin's death, he wasn't going to be arrested or tried or anything of the sort.

Rather, the only punishment Shulk received as a result of Robin's death was becoming a social pariah for the time being. It shouldn't have bothered Shulk too much that he was being ignored, as he was an introvert to begin with, but the reason why everybody was avoiding him hurt the Homs deep down. He never wanted Robin to go as far as put his life at risk just for some insignificant object. Had Robin just run down to one of the stores in town and picked up a few gizmos, gadgets, and doodads, Shulk would have appreciated the gesture all the same and the white haired male would still be alive. And that just hurt to think about.

The coffin was interred several hours later at a local cemetery, and all of the Smashers gave their last respects before breaking off to head back to the mansion. The only three individuals who stayed behind were Shulk, Reflet, and Chrom. As if to make things worse, it started to rain on the recently covered grave, causing Reflet to huddle up close to her husband while she continued to stare at her counterpart's gravestone. Shulk, on the other hand, had enough foresight to bring an umbrella with him, and he figured just a simple offering of an umbrella wouldn't upset the Exalted family too much.

"...Here." He said softly, holding out the end of the umbrella toward Reflet. Her eyes flitted up from the grave over to the young man who was making the generous offer, but instead of gratefully accepting the umbrella, the ivory haired female exploded on him.

"Don't you dare talk to me!" She screamed at Shulk, causing him to take a step back in shock. "This is all your fault! Robin would be alive if it weren't for you! You were awful to him, Shulk! I know you're aware that Robin's wife died during the war on his own world, and he thought he would never love again! That was what he told me at the very beginning of the tournament! But then _you_ came into his life, completely turning it upside down and leading him on a path to destruction! He was so sure that he had found a reason to love again! Robin loved you from the very first moment you two got to know each other!"

"Reflet, please..."

"Don't 'Reflet please' me!" She shouted. "I was so happy that Robin had found somebody to love, as he was so lonely before! You were an absolute dunce, though! You didn't realize Robin had feelings for you until he spelled them out to you!"

"I reciprocated his love the moment I realized how much he cared about me!" Shulk finally began to argue back, taking the step forward again.

"Your love was not authentic! You only put on a facade to make Robin happy! The moment he said one thing that was out of turn, you dropped him like a hot sausage!" At that moment, Reflet yanked the umbrella out of Shulk's hand and then brandished around, bringing it down onto the younger male's skull. Shulk yelped in pain as the umbrella was used to whack him over the head. "Your love for him was toxic, and the poison was enough to kill him off for good! You should be ashamed of yourself! Don't talk to me ever again, you fiend!"

Once again, Shulk was crying, as Reflet's words were affecting him deeply. It was bad enough he had to grieve for Robin's death, but the female tactician's harsh words made everything that much worse. Realizing he couldn't fall much further, the Monado wielder blindly ran off through the graveyard, just wanting to get away from everything so he could sob his heart out in the rain.

* * *

And now, it was exactly three weeks later after the funeral. Shulk ended up getting a pretty bad cold due to sitting out in the rain for about an hour before he was hustled back inside. He had been found bawling his eyes out beneath a tree. That left him bedridden for several days afterward. Those days in which the Monado wielder fought off his cold seemed to be enough time for everybody to get over their animosity toward Shulk and now things were mostly back to normal. The only person who still refused to talk to Shulk was Reflet, as expected. Not even Chrom's consolation was enough to make the female tactician get over her lingering feelings toward the blond Homs.

Reflet was pulling double duty in the tournament thanks to the fact that her counterpart was unable to fight for her anymore. It affected her battle abilities at first, but she devoted herself to getting stronger so that she wouldn't fall behind in the tournament. And whenever she went up against Shulk, the tactician fought at her fiercest, trying to vent her frustrations against the Monado wielder. The first time it happened, she had almost burned the blond teenager with Arcfire, letting her emotions get the best of her. After doing some deep breathing exercises with the Wii Fit Trainer, Reflet ended up calming down. Now, instead of getting angry at Shulk while they were out on the battlefield, the ivory haired female just let her battles do the talking. After getting used to her new routine, Reflet was fighting better than ever before.

One other thing that felt really different was Shulk's usual study sessions and book club meetings at the library. Robin loved spending time at the library, putting his face to a book whenever he could. The reason Robin had fallen for Shulk in the first place was because he had found out through a chance meeting at the library that the Monado wielder was as much a book lover as the ivory haired male. Initially Shulk had been written off as an aloof, meatheaded swordsman, sort of like Ike, but Robin was pleasantly surprised to find out that Shulk was the exact opposite of his expectations. They were best friends and then lovers very quickly as a result. But now there was a gap at the table where Shulk sat while reading or facilitating the book club. Nobody dared take what used to be Robin's spot, even if it would mean having a better spot in the formation.

Life was mostly just going on as usual, albeit with a gap in everybody's hearts. Today in particular, however, there would be a disruption of the status quo. Shulk walked over to his mailbox, filtering through a bunch of fan mail that had been addressed to him. He would look at those in detail later once he got back to his room. Instead, he focused on one particular letter that stood out among the rest. It was a letter written on a highly flexible sheet of what looked like metal which quickly snapped back to its original shape whenever it was bent into any other form. On it was a very chilling message for the blond teenager.

 

> To Shulk, Heir to the Monado,
> 
> I am sending to you a formal challenge of skills. Come out to the Bionis' Leg by yourself tomorrow at dawn. Be sure that you are alone, else whatever companions you bring with you will be killed. I will be waiting for you on Raguel Bridge. I want to see the power of the Monado for myself, so be prepared to fight with all of the strength you possess. I look forward to our battle tomorrow.
> 
> Obsidian Face
> 
> P.S. Refusal to accept the duel will result in terrible things happening to your hometown. I am not restricted by the terms of the truce. I will destroy Colony 9.

_Obsidian Face..._ Shulk thought to himself. He had never heard of a Faced Mechon by that name before. There was absolutely no indication of what Shulk was to expect from the upcoming duel, such as whatever powers this daunting enemy possessed. Either way, if the enemy was cocky enough to outright challenge the Monado wielder as well as threaten all of Colony 9, he or she had to be a very powerful enemy. Shulk knew that he was going to have one hell of a fight on his hands tomorrow morning, as he wasn't going to put everybody at risk by copping out. It also worried the seer immensely that such a powerful Faced Mechon was also unrestricted by the terms of the truce, or so they claimed. There was no reason to believe Obsidian Face was bluffing though, if they went as far as sent this letter purposefully to him. And so Shulk started to mentally prepare himself for his battle with Obsidian Face tomorrow.

* * *

_...in... up!_

A familiar voice was echoing in the darkness. One that the voice's intended audience quickly recognized as somebody he was sure he would never get to hear again. A soothing female voice, calling out over and over again.

_Rob... wake..._

**_Robin, wake up!_ **

As the full sentence echoed in the mind of the tactician, he finally opened his eyes slowly and groggily. It took a good minute for his eyesight to come into focus, realizing that he was staring up at some kind of piece of metal with several tools attached suspended over his head. Eyes quickly squinted due to the light that was shining off to his left and above hurting his already sensitive vision. There seemed to be some kind of purple metal object that wrapped around his head and protruded past his cheeks, almost like metal horns, but that was the least of Robin's concerns right now.

How long had he actually been unconscious? Robin thought that he had perished, seeing as he had been badly wounded in the fight against the Mechon, but clearly he was still alive now. Until just a little while ago, he thought that the ultimate darkness had consumed him, too. He was sure he had heard his dead wife's voice just now calling out to him to wake up. But here he was, staring up at a harsh light and a plethora of tools. This was certainly not heaven, as it was way too uncomfortable and felt too real.

Robin tried to raise a hand in order to cover his face, but he found that his arm wasn't going anywhere. Undeterred, he tried the same with his other arm before attempting to move his whole body, only managing to lift his head as the rest of his body appeared to be restrained to whatever surface he was laying upon. The action of raising his head ended up revealing a terrible truth to the white haired male.

_His entire body below the head was made of purple, gray, and gold metal._

Eyes widened immediately at this realization, and he was ready to scream, but before he could say anything, a strange gray woman with a very large headpiece, protruding bosom, and orange accents all over her body quickly made her way over. She raised a hand to Robin's mouth, covering it with her metal digits. "Please, stay quiet..." She insisted. "I know that this is likely to be a very uncomfortable situation, but I do not want my brother realizing that I'm here nor that you have awakened so soon." Robin tried to calm down, but considering everything that was going on, he found it hard to stay collected. The metal woman did remove her hand to allow the tactician to speak now that he was aware that he needed to be quiet, however.

"...Who are you?" He whispered. If Robin knew who this woman was, it would help him calm down a bit. She seemed to be on his side anyway, so the tactician wanted to trust her. Following a brief nod, the tall lady answered the question.

"My name is Vanea. My brother is the one who did this to your body. You were brought here badly ravaged by Mechon and my brother went out of his way to create this metal body for you to continue living with. It was either that or let you rot." To be honest, Robin probably would have preferred rotting over this, but he had no way of protesting in his current condition. Instead, he figured he might as well reciprocate the introduction.

"...I see. My name is..." He was cut off.

"Robin. Yes, I know." This surprised Robin immensely. How did Vanea already know his name? Before he could interject, another voice could be heard in the room.

"No, he is Face 23162." The new voice was masculine and deep and sent a shiver down Robin's metal spine. Vanea also gasped upon hearing that voice, spinning around to look at another tall gray individual who had stepped into the room. He walked over to where the tactician was laying down, blood red eyes meeting chocolate brown ones. Robin couldn't tear his eyes away from the man glaring at him. "I thought I told you to tell me when Face 23162 had awakened, Vanea."

"I am sorry, brother..." Vanea looked away toward the ground. "He only just woke up a short while ago."

"Hmph. Go to the Face Unit and make the final preparations." Vanea hesitated for a second, but she then left the room so that only Robin and the tall metal man remained. The tactician gathered all of the courage he had and spoke up.

"...Just who are you, anyway?" He said. There was a short grunt from the man as he started walking around the metal table Robin was strapped down to.

"I am your master, the one who saved you from death. You are now a soldier of Mechonis. You work for me." Robin felt his mechanical digits curl on their own, his anger resulting in fists being clenched. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't move his arms, the ivory haired male would have tried to throw a punch.

"What makes you so sure that I'll follow your orders?" He sneered back. "I am capable of thinking for myself, and like hell would I ever willingly help you hurt the people of Bionis!" A smirk found its way to the metal man's face before he spoke back.

"Right now you are capable of thinking for yourself, as I wanted to be sure your brain was still functional in this new form of yours, but soon you will have no choice but to follow my orders." More pacing around the table before continuing. "I know full well that you are a genius tactician, Robin. That was why the machine I built for you - custom created by own hands, no less - was built to integrate your mind with the computer system's code." And with that revealed, Robin's heart did a flip as he tried to flail around in vain again.

"No!" He shouted. "I won't do it! I refuse! I'm not going to become your servant!" Oh, if only his new body's strength was enough to break the restraints holding him to the table. Even with this new body, he still wasn't strong enough to protect himself.

"Face Unit's preparations have finished." Vanea's voice came over an intercom, and Robin's struggling only grew in intensity. He grunted loudly as he pulled against the shackles, making absolutely no progress. After a brief laugh, the man gave one last remark.

"You will destroy the Heir to the Monado soon, Robin... No, Face 23162... That is your objective." Once he had finished speaking, Robin started screaming at the top of his lungs. His cries ranged from 'NO!' to 'SHULK!' to 'I WON'T SERVE YOU BASTARD!' while the operating table was pulled through the floor and transported to another part of the facility. Seeing as his eyes were clenched shut during his screams of protest, Robin didn't realize that had been swiftly moved and was now sitting within an uncomfortable metal chair. A large piece of metal pressed up against his chest, though due to the lack of nerves in his stomach, Robin couldn't feel it. His legs were locked into place soon after, and thick metal cuffs attached to a large number of wires clamped around his wrists. Even if it was possible to move around his arms now, movement was still restricted by the wires.

The final touch was a thick black wire plugging in behind the tactician's head, just below the skull. He gasped loudly as the prongs dug into the metal piece that made up his neck, snapping the wire into place. He would have tried to thrash his head about in an attempt to dislodge the black cord, but strange new thoughts permeated into Robin's mind not long after the wire was attached. These seemed to pacify the young man quickly, as the flailing and struggling desisted immediately. Robin's mind was quickly assimilated into the Mechon's system and his free thoughts were suppressed.
    
    
    "Download complete. Face Number 23162 - Obsidian Face - is operational."

The monotone voice of the young human echoed through a mechanical speaker.
    
    
    "Primary objective: kill the Heir to the Monado and destroy his sword..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4284 words. Hopefully it should be pretty clear where this is headed now. There's the 'Obsidian' part of the title of this story, at least. Now for notes:
> 
> 1\. In case anybody doesn't want to do the math, the present day is occurring 26 days after the day Robin died. Almost a month, as described.
> 
> 2\. Egil's words from the last story weren't just a throwaway commentary! And yes, if it wasn't obvious (though I'm pretty sure it is), the tall metal man talking to Robin at the end there is indeed Egil.
> 
> 3\. 23162 is just a random set of numbers, honestly. I just wanted to make sure the number was larger than 20814, which is Jade Face's designation.


	4. The Duel at Dawn

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shulk is determined to protect Colony 9 by going out to Raguel Bridge to fight against Obsidian Face. How will he actually fare going up against a powerful Faced Mechon, though?

Shulk continued to stare at the letter that he had received earlier, its black script burning more into his eyes the longer he stared at it. Of course he was nervous about accepting a duel with a Faced Mechon he had never heard of before. He was sitting at his desk, the flexible metal sitting on the table in front of him. As much as he wanted to crawl into bed and fall asleep so he would have enough energy to deal with Obsidian Face early tomorrow morning, the butterflies were flitting about ceaselessly in his stomach, making it impossible to calm down. This battle made him more nervous than any of his Smash matches in the past due to the fact that he had absolutely no knowledge of this enemy going in against it. All he knew was that it was a Faced Mechon, which had some kind of miraculous resistance against the Monado. Of course, that knowledge didn't really make things any better, considering the fate of Colony 9 (as well as Shulk himself) was resting on him winning the duel.

Eventually, Shulk gave up trying to deal with his thoughts, flipping the sheet metal over so it looked like a nondescript part for some kind of project he was tinkering with rather than a letter for a duel. He didn't bother folding it up, knowing full well it would unfold itself again if he did that - he had tried to do that a couple times already, after all. With that done, the Monado wielder climbed back onto his bunk and stared up at the ceiling aimlessly while thoughts darted around in his head. Eventually, he did end up falling asleep, though it was entirely out of boredom.

* * *

Shulk had his phone alarm set to vibrate and kept it in his vest pocket so that it wouldn't disrupt Samus or Pikachu in the early hours of the morning. It was about 5 AM right now, after all. He just needed to slip away and hurry off to the teleporter before anybody spotted him. Thankfully, seeing as it was so early, it was unlikely that anybody else would be running around the hallways. Even if there was somebody, Shulk slinking about furtively at this hour in the morning would not come off as that strange, as he woke up with the first lick of daylight anyway. Nobody ended up seeing him, however.

And so, the Heir to the Monado found his way to the teleporters without incident. Thanks to the fact that he was from Bionis, there was no need to create a fuss with the system and it whisked him away to his homeworld.

A moment later, he stepped out onto the leg of the mighty titan, taking in the fresh dawn air of the world he called home. Thankfully, the mansion seemed to be on a similar time frame to Bionis, meaning he didn't have to worry about something weird happening time-wise, like it being the middle of the afternoon on Bionis despite the fact that the sun was barely up at the hub world. As much as Shulk wanted to sit around and enjoy the familiarity of being on Bionis once more, there was something he had to do. Monado swinging lively with each step he took, Shulk walked toward Raguel Bridge, knowing full well how to get there from where he currently was. Once again, those butterflies came back, darting about in his stomach while he looked around for any sign of the enemy he was supposed to be battling very soon.

The walk to the bridge was completely quiet, and there was no sign of the Mechon. Not even as he came out onto the bridge was there any indication of a mechanical monstrosity waiting to attack him. Shulk's heart skipped a beat as he wondered if it was too late - that the letter had been postmarked for a different date, but it got caught up in the mail system because it came from a restricted world. Did he miss the date of the battle already? None had been written on the letter, so it was entirely possible. Now he was worried that Colony 9 had already been completely leveled because he missed the date of the battle. He was ready to ditch Raguel Bridge and hurry his way through Tephra Cave in order to see if his hometown had already been destroyed.

And then, a vision. Shulk's eyes glowed blue and he was immobilized by his foresight powers warning him of something.

_Fire rained down from the sky upon the very spot that Shulk was standing in. As he wasn't expecting the attack, he was completely engulfed in flames and started running for the side of the bridge in an attempt to leap into Raguel Lake below. He managed to leap off the side of the bridge, but he seemed to be unconscious before he even hit the water. Sure enough, Shulk's body never resurfaced, the fire killing him before he even hit the surface of the lake._

That seemed to be enough to stop Shulk's plan to hurry out for Colony 9. It was indication enough that the battle had yet to begin - Obsidian Face was going to be here soon.

A moment later, a super fast dark colored streak zoomed in above the lake, flying around at a breakneck speed. It was only capable of being tracked by the naked eye due to the streams of burning fuel that came out of its thrusters. As the vision warned, fire began to rain out of the sky. However, Shulk was prepared. He hurried forward out of the range of the flames, changing that future.

What he wasn't expecting was for the airborne enemy to sweep another set of flames down in front of Shulk. The blond male stopped fast in order to avoid being roasted, but now he was officially surrounded by fire. Both exits of Raguel Bridge had giant walls of flame preventing him from running away. Suddenly Shulk began to wonder if this was actually a trap.

Just then, the foe finally revealed its true nature. It stopped swooping around long enough to show itself to Shulk. The Monado wielder's stomach sank as he got a good glimpse of the Faced Mechon. It continued to hover above the bridge, as it didn't seem to have legs. Instead, it had a very long tail that snaked around in the air as it floated in place, the thrusters keeping it suspended. The whole machine seemed to look like a giant black dragon, though its true hue was actually a dark purple (albeit it was hard to tell thanks to the strange lighting condition of the dawn light). It had two sets of arms, one set looking like large, cylindrical turbines and another set that could only really be described as small and almost vestigial, like a Tyrannosaurus Rex's arms. Six glaring red eyes stared into Shulk's soul while two very long metal antennae whipped around wildly. There were six metal pieces sticking out of the Mechon's back, two of which were raised straight up into the air, two at 4 and 8 o'clock, and the middle two (which were also the longest of the six) at about 2 and 10 o'clock which had very large jet boosters attached to them. These giant thrusters were the reason why the Mechon was so fast while flying around.

After getting over his initial shock at the enemy's appearance, Shulk whipped the Monado off his back, flipped it open to let the Ether beam spill out, and got ready to fight. First came an initial exchange of smack talk, though. "You!" The blond Homs barked. "I take it you're the bloody bastard who ordered me to come out here at the crack of dawn, right?"
    
    
    "That is correct. I am Obsidian Face."

The Mechon answered the question in a monotone voice that was slightly broken up thanks to the speaker system it projected through. Shulk could have sworn he'd heard the voice before, but he didn't know anybody who spoke in such a flat manner.

"I won't let you destroy my home, Obsidian Face!" Shulk barked back. "I will defeat you and the rest of Mechonis will know the power of the Monado!"
    
    
    "The Monado must be destroyed. You must be destroyed. Prepare to be eliminated, Heir to the Monado."

Obsidian Face then lifted his right arm and pointed it straight at Shulk. It was plain to see a fan affixed to the inside of the large turbine, though Shulk didn't have much of an opportunity to get a good glimpse of it before the turbine was turned on for a brief moment and a very powerful blast of wind flew in the Monado wielder's direction. It was a direct hit, flinging Shulk's body through the air in the direction of the flames that were still burning behind him on the bridge. Instead of landing in the fire, however, Shulk took what he learned from Smash and propelled his body forward to simulate a double jump. He didn't have enough forward momentum to launch himself all the way back at Obsidian Face for a counter attack, but at least he landed safely back on the ground and not in the flames.

"Take this!" He yelled, running forward as fast as he could with the Monado in hand. Obsidian Face switched to his other large arm, and it became clear that this one was not a wind turbine like the right, but a flamethrower. This was the weapon that had been used to throw the flames down onto the bridge, the blond teen noted to himself. Shulk dodged several fireballs that were shot in his direction before leaping up to try taking a slice out of Obsidian Face.

But the Mechon was too fast. His large thrusters immediately swiveled forward to propel the dragonlike machine backward and out of the reach of the beam of the legendary weapon. Shulk leaped again at Obsidian Face, but the Mechon completely jetted away from Raguel Bridge, taking to the sky once again.

"Hey!" The blond shouted, waving his weapon at Obsidian Face angrily. "That's not fair at all! I can't fight you when you're flying around like that!" At this point, he was completely convinced that Obsidian Face had set up a trap. The Mechon's next actions pretty much solidified this, too.
    
    
    "I will eliminate the Heir to the Monado."

He said in that same monotone voice before his two antennae rose up directly over his head, sparkling with electricity. Once again he swooped down to Raguel Bridge, but instead of returning to that position he was in before, he hovered over it while the electrified antennae touched the sides of the metal bridge. As a result, a bolt of lightning shot through the entirety of Raguel Bridge as well as everything on top of it. Meaning Shulk received the brunt of the electrical attack.

" **GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!** " Shulk screamed at the top of his lungs as powerful electricity surged through his body. His limbs had completely locked up and prevented movement, meaning he continued to get shocked and would likely keep doing so until he was thoroughly fried. He had fallen for the trap hook, line, and sinker, and he was going to pay for it with his life.

Just then, there was an explosion against Obsidian Face's arm, causing the Mechon to yell in confusion and remove his electrified antennae from the bridge. Shulk fell to his knees and dropped the Monado, badly hurt by the surge of energy that had just coursed through his body for what had to be at least half a minute before that explosion occurred. The red sword immediately snapped shut after it was dropped, spinning a little on the ground in front of its wielder. Obsidian Face was too distracted to try to crush the weapon that was essentially the bane of Mechonis, though. Instead, he began screaming at the top of his lungs.
    
    
    "I TOLD YOU TO COME ALONE!"

The voice that came out of the Mechon was still monotone, but it was at a higher pitch than before to show that he was angry. A familiar voice shot back a second later, causing Shulk to gasp.

"He did come alone! I came later!" The blond Homs slowly craned his neck back toward the direction of the voice and saw standing near the edge of Raguel Bridge was none other than an individual in a bright orange space suit, aiming a green cannon directly at Obsidian Face. It was none other than the Metroid hunter herself, Samus Aran, dressed up in her Varia Suit. A moment later, a yellow blur jumped off her shoulder, electricity coming out of the creature's cheeks as it glared angrily at the Mechon. He was growling the whole time while doing that. It seemed both Samus and Pikachu had arrived to back Shulk up.

"Samus!" Shulk yelled as he slowly helped himself back to his feet. "What are you doing here?!"

"I read that letter you had left on your desk!" The bounty huntress answered, nodding visibly so Shulk could see the motion in spite of her helmet. "You left it out and Pikachu knocked it off onto the floor, flipping it, too! I couldn't help but read it after figuring out that there was writing on it! And now I'm glad I did!" Shulk briskly shook his head before speaking up again.

"That's not exactly what I meant!" He shot back. "How on Bionis did you manage to get through the teleporter to get here?! This world is restricted!"

"I got permission from Master Hand!" Samus answered. "He understood this was an emergency and gave me clearance to come here! Not a moment too soon, either!"

"Pika pika!" The Pokemon on all fours beside Samus' feet interjected just then. He seemed to have noticed that Obsidian Face had quickly flown around behind him and Samus and was hovering over them while the Homs and the bounty huntress talked with one another.
    
    
    "I TOLD THE HEIR TO THE MONADO TO COME ALONE! I TOLD HIM ANYBODY WHO WOULD ACCOMPANY HIM WOULD DIE!"

The Mechon shouted at that angry higher pitch again, slamming one of of his large turbine arms into the Bionis in an attempt to crush the orange clad hunter and her Pokemon companion with it. However, both of them managed to leap away out of range of the turbine before it came down on their heads. Some of the rock crumbled away into the lake below, creating large splashes as the debris fell in. However, the rocks broke in such a way that Obsidian Face's arm got stuck between them. He tried to pull it out of the ground, but it wasn't giving easily. Loud grunts and complaints about the Bionis echoed through the Mechon's speakers as he tried to realign his thrusters in an attempt to pull his arm out of the ground.

Shulk, however, had recovered enough so that he was able to hurry over to where Obsidian Face was stuck, picking the Monado up off the bridge before running over. "Don't you dare attack Samus, you monster!" He shouted, brandishing the legendary weapon. He yelled out a battle cry as he leaped into the air and attempted to attack one of the boosters.

Much to Shulk's surprise, the Monado easily cleaved through the metal rather than bouncing off like it did with Metal Face. He ended up slicing the thruster into two pieces, red liquid dripping out of the identically colored lines of light that had been glowing along the length of the jet. Obsidian Face then screamed loudly at the top of his lungs, his speakers echoing the pained shout across the entirety of the Bionis' Leg. Shulk's heart did a flip. He had definitely heard a scream not unlike the one that was reverberating just now at some time in the past.

Before the blond male could react, the purple Mechon pulled his arm out of the rocks at last, trying to zoom away with the half destroyed booster. Obsidian Face probably only got a couple yards across the lake when suddenly, the entire thruster exploded. The dragonlike Mechon immediately plunged into the lake, sending tons of water everywhere. A fire was now burning up and down what remained of that jet while the body of the Mechon lay half submerged and unmoving. Samus finally stood up again and breathed a sigh of relief.

"...You did it." She said calmly, putting a hand on Shulk's shoulder. "You defeated Obsidian Face. I doubt he's going to come back after that damage." Instead of being comforted by Samus' congratulations, however, the Heir to the Monado felt an immense sense of dread.

"NO!" He shouted, swinging his sword onto his back to essentially sheathe it before jumping off the side of the cliff, plunging into the lake below. The bounty huntress was completely shocked by Shulk's actions, and Pikachu was yelling as well, likely trying to summon Shulk back to the top of the cliff. However, the blond teenager kept swimming across the lake regardless of what the Metroid hunter and yellow Pokemon were demanding he do.

Eventually, Shulk pulled himself up onto the wreckage that had once been the proud Obsidian Face, climbing up the Mechon's tail until he was on par with its thorax. Once there, the Monado wielder could hear a soft voice being spoken from within.

"...Mission failed. All systems breaking down. Shutdown imminent..." Those three sentences seemed to be repeating over and over again from inside the Mechon. However, the voice wasn't projecting through the speakers, making it impossible for Samus and Pikachu to hear. The fact that the voice was echoing told Shulk where he needed to use the Monado. He wasted no time taking the sword off his back and plunged it into the body of the machine, causing a loud yelp to come from its inhabitant before the monotone droning resumed. He deftly sliced open the cockpit of the machine in spite of occasional yelps of pain to reveal the individual sitting inside who had been driving the Mechon.

Shulk's stomach sank as his suspicion was confirmed. The young man sitting in the seat of the machine had snow white hair surrounded by oddly hornlike purple metal pieces. His chocolate brown eyes were staring at nothing in particular, clouded over and appearing rather lifeless. "Shutdown imminent. mission failed. All systems breaking down. Shutdown imminent..." He continued to repeat. Adrenaline coursed through Shulk's veins as he immediately got to work cutting his friend free from the metal cage before the fire from the destroyed booster came to end his life once more. The Monado cut through the wires around the cuffs that held the other's arms in place, slit through the metal control panel pressed up against his stomach, and undid the leg restraints.

For the final touch, Shulk carefully pulled out the plug in the back of his neck, preferring to do it the old fashioned way rather than cut him away in case it actually hurt to do so, seeing as it was the only piece that was actually physically inserted within the cyborg man's body. A loud gasp could be heard after the fact as the other's eyes blinked, returning him to a lucid state. Several seconds were spent trying to regain his breath before the ivory haired head was turned. chocolate eyes met cerulean ones as tears rolled down the faces of both of the young men.

"S-Shulk..." The cyborg's voice was almost completely inaudible, but Shulk still managed to hear it, his smile widening while he continued to cry.

"Robin..." Shulk answered. "I'm so happy you're alive~" A crackle of the flames quickly snapped the blond back to reality and he pulled Robin out of Obsidian Face's cockpit, throwing the tactician onto his back. He was much heavier as a Mechon than he was as a human, but Shulk didn't care right now. "Hold on tight!" He shouted, looking over his shoulder at the other. Shulk could feel metal arms clasp around his shoulders, and after it felt like he was firmly holding on, the Monado wielder leaped into the water, swimming as far away as he could from the Obsidian Wreckage.

He was almost over to one of the lower shores of Raguel Lake when, all of a sudden, a loud explosion could be heard. A quick glance back revealed that the entirety of Obsidian Face had blown up. Had Shulk not had the thought to see if his hunch was right, Robin would have ended up dead for the second time in a month. Instead, he was still alive and the tactician and seer had been reunited.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3477 words. Surprised to see another chapter so soon? So am I. I couldn't put this down once I started writing it though. Anyway, this is the penultimate chapter, but only just the beginning of Shulk and Mecha-Robin's new relationship. Notes:
> 
> 1\. It's probably really obvious, but Obsidian Face's design is based on Grima's appearance. Egil did a lot of research to create a Mechon that represented Robin, going as far as touching upon his roots as the vessel of the Fell Dragon. Obsidian Face's main attacks are using a wind turbine, flamethrower, and electrostatic energy, representing how he uses Elwind, Arcfire, and various Thunder tomes in the tournament. There isn't a representation of Nosferatu, though.
> 
> 2\. As Samus suggested, people have the ability to go to restricted worlds if they get permission from Master Hand. She showed the Hand the letter from Obsidian Face and was allowed to go to Bionis without issue. If it weren't for Pikachu knocking the letter off Shulk's desk, she wouldn't have known about the duel and poor Shulk would have ended up being killed by Robin!
> 
> 3\. I had in mind for a while as to how Obsidian Face was going to be defeated, remembering something Aria told me about how the Monado is only restricted from cutting sapient lifeforms with Ether in their bodies. That came into play here, as Robin's human body isn't capable of creating Ether, therefore leaving it vulnerable to the Monado's attacks. Obsidian Face, as powerful as his abilities may be, has one very major flaw that Egil didn't realize and Shulk figured out by accident.


	5. The Chains Tighten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shulk has rescued Robin from an early grave yet again, but the problems have only just begun. What will everybody think of Robin returning with a mechanical body?

"I can't believe it... I can't believe what I'm actually looking at..." Shulk had set Robin up against the side of a cliff, letting him sit there in an attempt to recover energy after being recently unplugged from Obsidian Face's cockpit while the blond Homs examined the tactician from a short distance away. To think that he would have the body of a machine... Robin seemed to have heard Shulk's words and stared dejectedly at the ground while replying to him.

"...It's terrible, isn't it? This stupid machine body I have now..." Robin lifted a hand slowly, as if trying to verify that the purple limb that sat in front of him was indeed his own. Shulk was very quick to refute Robin's claim, shaking his head briskly.

"No no!" He insisted while gesticulating. "I think it's great that you have a replacement body. I'd much rather have you alive with this body than dead in your old body, after all." Robin snorted in annoyance before replying.

"I didn't want a replacement body. I messed up and I deserved to die there. I don't deserve a second chance. Besides, look at me!" The tactician's eyes snapped back to Shulk, revealing that he was on the verge of crying. "I'm a Mechon! I'm the bane of your people's existence! I'll bring you nothing but misfortune..." And yet again, eyes slid off to the side to avoid further eye contact. The Monado wielder shook his head and reached out to take both of Robin's mechanical hands into his own, fleshy fingers intertwining with metal ones. Robin gasped as he looked back into Shulk's eyes, finally seeing those lovely, unique rings around his pupils that he loved so much for the first time in ages. A smile found its way to the blond's face as he maintained eye contact.

"I know you're nothing like that." He said calmly. "You're still you. You just look a little different, that's all. Your thoughts are still the same, which makes you the same Robin I know and care about." Robin once again looked down, but he let his hands stay curled up in Shulk's.

"You don't know that." The ivory haired male answered, voice low with disappointment. "My brain was literally hooked up with that Naga-damned machine. It inserted thoughts into my head, and there's no way for you to know how much damage it caused. Also your sentimental hand gesture here, as kind as its intentions may be, is completely pointless on me. My arm is made of metal and there are no nerve endings in my fingers. I can't actually feel your hands around mine." Only reason he had realized that Shulk had done that action to begin with was because he ended up moving Robin's arms a little while grasping onto him. Of course Robin wanted to hold onto Shulk's hands like this, but he wanted to actually feel the Homs' warm flesh in between his own fingers, too. Shulk seemed to be taking a moment to look the tactician's mechanical body up and down before he finally responded.

"You don't have a whole lot of your human body still remaining..." The only parts of his human body that still could be seen in his Mechon form were his face and a small patch of skin just above the bosom, actually. "But the fact that you still have your face intact means that you should still be able to feel this." And with that, Shulk leaned forward and pressed his face against Robin's, eliciting another gasp from the cyborg. The metal horns on the tactician's face didn't end up getting in the way as Shulk thought they might, meaning that there was nothing stopping the Homs from giving a long, passionate kiss to the smaller male. The seer was completely correct with his assumption that Robin would be able to feel Shulk's face pressed up against his own while they breathed each other's air and chewed on each others' lips. Tears rolled down Robin's eyes as he was once again truly happy for the first time since being rescued from Obsidian Face.

However, a strange noise caused the two to break off from one another and look around for the source. The moment Shulk broke away from Robin, he gave a quick gasp as his eyes started to glow blue. Robin was well aware of what that meant, but after hearing another noise he tackled the immobilized seer to the ground and shielded the younger male's body with his own. Shulk yelped loudly as he was forced to the ground and his vision was disrupted, while a loud clanking noise of metal on metal could be heard.

There was a gray and yellow M44 Mechon on top of Robin now, and he was grunting loudly while trying to push the machine off his back. "Shulk!" The tactician shouted. "Get out from under me! Quick!" Robin's eyes had changed color from their usual brown hue to a strange green color. There was a look of concern in Shulk's eyes after being given the order and noticing the change in Robin's eyes, but he did as told, shuffling out from beneath the mechanized mage. The seer then reared back and leaped to his feet, taking the Monado off his back. He wasted no time at all with attacking the M44 using the legendary sword, as Robin was still trying to push up against it, resisting its attacks due to his body made of Mechon armor. The red weapon easily sliced through the small mech, it falling in pieces around the tactician.

As much as Robin wanted to give a sigh of relief, Shulk made it clear that there were more Mechon dropping down from above. This prompted Robin to head over to one of the destroyed pieces of M44 and tear off the large spire that stuck up out of the top of the machine. By this point, even if Shulk wasn't able to tell right now, the cyborg's eyes changed color once again, this time to blood red. He then used it like a short lance, jabbing it several times into one of the larger M53s that had fallen onto the beach. The Mechon wasn't strong enough to resist receiving a powerful blow from mechanically enhanced arms and a weapon made out of the same material as their frames. The large claw of the M53 was then jabbed through in order to separate it from the rest of the machine before that too was used as a weapon by Robin, swung around like a scythe toward a second M53. Shulk just stood there and stared at Robin in shock as he made quick work of the Mechon, cleaving through them one by one with parts torn off of other Mechon. After the bloodbath, Robin stood on the beach, still holding the M44's spire in one hand and the M53's claw in the other. He was exhaling deeply, as if trying to let the adrenaline wear off.

"...Robin..." Shulk said quietly. He was anticipating having to battle all the Mechon himself, so the fact that Robin leaped in and took them out simultaneously surprised and scared the seer. Upon hearing his name, Robin spun around to face Shulk once more. It was then that the Homs could see the red hue in the tactician's eyes, which resulted in Shulk's heart giving a small start. However, they quickly changed back to their usual brown after he blinked, and then, immediately following that, Robin dropped the Mechon parts he was holding while his eyes grew wide.

"...What did I just do?" He muttered with fear, staring at his hands. "I don't know what came over me... It's like... some kind of attack mode in me was activated. Oh no..." Robin then collapsed to his knees, eyes still wide with horror. "I can't go back to the mansion like this... If I activate my attack mode again in the tournament, I might end up actually hurting somebody... or worse..." Shulk wanted to comfort Robin, but he wasn't really sure how to go about it. Was this a result of being hooked up to Obsidian Face's system? Or was this a pre-installed function in Robin's new body, put there by whoever made it?

Thankfully, a distraction came a moment later. "Shuuulk!" A voice echoed from above. The blond male turned his head up toward the top of the lake to notice that Samus was looking down at him. Pikachu called out a second later, waving an arm to both of the males below. Shulk waved back before turning to Robin, who was still wallowing over his lack of self control.

"We should really get to the upper level of the lake again, Robin. I know there are some vines nearby we can climb up to get to the top again." He suggested, offering a hand to help the other back to his feet. Oddly enough, the white haired male took Shulk's hand and not only helped himself to his feet, but quickly grabbed Shulk's body afterward and grasped onto him tightly. The Homs took a look into the tactician's eyes and wondered if this was yet another eye color changing function, but they were still brown. Robin shook his head briefly before answering.

"We don't need those vines." He said. "I can go one better." Suddenly, the brown and blue metal apparatus attached to Robin's back that Shulk hadn't really noticed prior to now swung open, revealing that it looked like large bat wings. However, rather than flapping, small jets came out of the ends and propelled the two skyward. It was a jet pack disguised as wings, Shulk noted.

Once they landed, the wings folded back up and looked unassuming once more as Samus and Pikachu hurried over to meet up with them. Pikachu carefully crawled over to where Robin was standing and sniffed at his feet for a couple seconds. "Pi-Pika!" He suddenly announced before leaping up onto the tactician's shoulder and nuzzling up against his face. It seemed that the Pokemon had recognized Robin in spite of his new body. The bounty huntress had her non-cannon arm on her hip as she spoke up.

"Well, I'm glad to see you again... Robin..." She said slowly. "I'm sure everybody back at the mansion will be happy to see you're alive as well." Robin's shoulders sagged and he looked down at his metal hands.

"I don't know if I can really be called alive like this..." He stated in a melancholy way. "I don't deserve to be alive..." Samus shook her head briskly.

"You were given a second chance to be alive. You should live your life to the fullest. Now, you should come with us back to the mansion before more Mechon show up." Shulk decided to interject just then.

"Is that why it took you two so long to come over and talk with us?" He asked. Samus nodded visibly before pointing over her shoulder with the Varia Suit's cannon. Behind her was a pile of Mechon, all of which were throwing off sparks in every which direction, and some had pieces blown off.

"Sure is. Pikachu and I had to scrap all those machines back there, as they were trying to kill us." The orange clad huntress shrugged. "They weren't nearly as tough as that big one was, though." This seemed to be enough to cause Robin's mood to drop. Pikachu tried to cheer the sad tactician up by giving him a quick lick on the cheek. It was enough to get him to giggle a little, but it still sounded sad at the same time.

"I'm not sure if you were able to tell, but it was me inside that Naga-damned machine." He admitted, staring down at his robot body. "I'm really sorry that I almost killed you - all three of you, in fact." Samus shook her head.

"You didn't try to kill us." She responded. "I could tell that it wasn't you who was really controlling that machine, but rather that the machine was controlling you. You're a good guy. I know everybody will be happy once they realize you're still alive." The white haired male's eyes perked up once more as a look of surprise replaced his misery.

"I... I suppose you're right." He bobbed his head slowly. "Perhaps we should head back to the mansion now, as we've spent a long time here."

"You more so than any of us." Samus joked back, trying to poke fun at the fact that Robin had been stuck on Bionis for almost a month.

"Can we just head back to the mansion already?" Shulk interjected. And so the four started the trip back.

* * *

Immediately after the group made it back to the hub world, Samus broke away from the others in order to report everything that happened to Master Hand. She figured it would be best if Robin got used to life at the mansion again and get reintroduced to everybody. Yes, he had only been away for a little less than a month, but considering his new body, it would be like meeting somebody new for a lot of people. Pikachu decided to accompany Samus in order to give space to the other two. And that left Shulk with Robin. The blond male refused to leave his smaller friend's side, as he wanted to help break the ice between Robin and whomever else he ended up meeting.

First things first, Shulk took Robin's hand and led him away in the direction of Reflet's and Chrom's room. Of course the female tactician would be the first person that Shulk would think to bring the revived male to. After knocking on the door, Shulk took a step back and waited. Robin's hand clenched around the seer's, almost too tightly, and he almost felt like running away. He didn't want Reflet seeing him like this. However, Shulk's grip was returned just as hard, as he wanted the two tacticians to meet once again.

Just then, the door opened up slowly, revealing that the tactician was actually in her room. Upon seeing Shulk and Robin, her first thought was that the former was playing some kind of mean prank on her. She was ready to punch Shulk as she yelled at him. "What in Naga's name possessed you to make some kind of machine with his face on it?!" She screamed. "If this is your way of trying to make things up to me, you only made it worse! Get that damned thing away from me!" This was enough to make Robin immediately tense up and look like he was about to cry. Shulk quickly tried to explain.

"No, Reflet!" He protested, dropping his grip from Robin in order to jam his hand in between her door and the frame in order to stop her from slamming it on him. Instead, it got literally slammed on him and he cringed visibly while keeping his hand in as a blockade. "This isn't a robot! I mean, I guess it is, but it's not just any robot! It really is Robin! He's back!"

"Get your hand out of my door!" She shouted, opening it up more in an attempt to slam the door harder on him. "You're absolutely despicable! I can't believe you would do something like this! It's way too soon!" And with that, she went to throw the door shut hard on Shulk. However, Robin's green eyed mode kicked in again and he leaped forward to catch the door before Reflet could break Shulk's wrist with it. After he blinked, eyes returned to their normal brown hue, and he started yelling for the second time Shulk had ever heard him do so, the first being after the Splatfest.

"Reflet!" He yelled, immediately causing her to gasp. "What in Naga's name do you think you're doing?! You're going to break his hand like that! What made you so bitter? You were always such a kind person, and now all I'm seeing is a ridiculous amount of vitriol!" After a second, the white haired female reached out and placed a hand on Robin's cheek, their matching eyes staring into one another.

"...It really is you..." She sounded completely mystified and there was almost no volume to her voice. "Oh Gods, what did they even do to you? This... machine!" Robin looked away.

"I know, it's awful, isn't it?" He said. "I hate it. I'd honestly rather be dead than have this stupid body..." Reflet shook her head visibly and cut the elder off. By this point, she had calmed down considerably and was speaking normally again.

"Well I'd rather have you like this than not have you at all." She smiled. "You have no idea how much my heart broke when I realized you had died... But now that you're alive again, I feel whole once more. You're important to me, Robin..." And with that, Reflet threw herself into Robin's arms, who hugged her gently in return. Shulk was very happy that the reunion of the two tacticians had gone so well.

* * *

The next destination was Robin's room. The tactician was quite surprised to see that there were no markers on the door anymore. Shulk explained that his door marker had been removed and used in a funeral ceremony. Just mentioning that there had been a funeral seemed to be enough to get the white haired male upset again.

"So I really am dead to everybody then..." He said sadly. "Maybe I'm better off not being here after all..." Shulk briskly shook his head.

"Don't say that!" He protested. "You saw how happy Reflet was when she finally realized it was really you. Would you really want to put her through heartache again?" With a defeated sigh, Robin hung his head.

"You're right..." The white haired mage answered. "I couldn't possibly hurt her again... But that still doesn't change the fact that I hate this body, and spending time alone in this room is just going to make me think about how stupid my body is all the time." Shulk reached up and placed a hand on Robin's robotic shoulder, shaking it a little to make it clear to the cyborg that it was there thanks to the lack of nerves in his metal frame. As a result, brown eyes darted over to see what was going on and then redirected into Shulk's own orbs.

"You're not going to be alone." The blond said with determination. "I'm moving back in with you. I don't want you to live alone anymore. Besides, I want to learn more about Mechon..." Before Shulk continued, he shook his shoulders in order to make the taller male drop his hand.

"So you're just staying with me because you want to study me." Robin sounded irritated as he guessed at the other's intentions. "I'm just an experiment to you. You're only interested in my body. Unbelievable..." That comment broke Shulk's heart, but he insisted on trying to make amends.

"I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in your Mechon body, Robin." This caused the cyborg to roll his eyes, cross his arms, and huff loudly in irritation. Shulk placed his hand on the other's remaining flesh on his bosom, ensuring that Robin actually felt the sensation of touch. "But I'm also still interested in you as a person. Reflet told me after you die... disappeared that my love for you was toxic and one sided. I know I'm hardly an ideal boyfriend, but I want to get better. Had Reflet brought it to my attention earlier, I would have tried to make things better sooner - before you would have thought to go out to Bionis, even. So yes, I'm interested in Robin the Mechon, but I'm also interested in Robin the person. I want to make it up to you." And with that, Shulk threw himself at the other, hugging him tightly. It took several seconds, but Robin slowly returned the sign of affection. As much as he wanted to hate Shulk for being so shallow, he just couldn't. It was a roundabout way of doing so, but becoming a Mechon had successfully let Robin save his relationship.

Several moments were spent just tightly holding onto one another, but then they broke away as Robin redirected his attention to the door. Seeing as it was technically nobody's room right now, a key wasn't necessary to get inside (and good thing too; Robin's old key was in his robe that had been destroyed by the Mechon that killed him), and Robin casually strolled in. Despite the fact that the room was unlocked, all of the tactician's items were still where they had been prior to his death. Shulk took a moment to look around the room and see how much everything had changed since he had left, but it seemed very little had been moved around, only that Shulk's things were no longer in there due to being moved to Samus' room.

"...Still kept this place immaculate, I see." He noted, turning back toward where Robin had been a moment earlier. However, the tactician wasn't there, apparently having wandered off somewhere. "...Robin? Where did you go?" And so the search for the white haired male began, but it was a very short lived hunt. Robin had wandered over to the closet and had taken out a robe identical to the one destroyed on Bionis (he had several cloaks in order to make sure his most well known outfit was always available for tournament matches in spite of washing or one getting destroyed or other circumstances), throwing it over his metal body. It jut out at weird points, such as at the shoulders due to the metal plates that were attached there, but otherwise it was still a perfect fit. The winglike drones were actually floating in place a short distance away from his back, and so the robe was able to fit in between the jet pack and the rest of his body without getting in the way.

"Huh..." Robin mused to himself, readjusting his sleeves a little after they got caught on his elbow joints. "I can't believe this cloak still fits. Good thing too, it'll help disguise this stupid metal body to some extent." Shulk had walked over to Robin and admired the other's new appearance.

"I'm glad whoever made your new body ended up recreating it at the same size you used to be." A slight smirk found its way to the Homs' face, which Robin frowned at.

"Ugh, I honestly wish that I would have been reconstructed to be taller..." He grunted. "Did I _have_ to be so small still? Was there any advantage in keeping me so short?"

"Maybe it was to make you fit better into Obsidian Face?"

"Shulk, really?"

"Then again, if compactness was the case, why bother to make a full body for you in the first place?"

"Shulk, you're not making me feel any better about this..." He then squeaked as the taller male jogged around and hugged him from behind. The drones were pressed into his back, but their presence didn't seem to bother neither Shulk nor Robin at all.

"Whatever the reason, having the same size as your human body means that you're just as huggable as ever~" Robin's face flushed at the thought, but he let himself relax and rest against Shulk's chest after a second.

"I suppose that's one positive for this stupid body..." Robin said quietly as he closed his eyes and smiled. Even if he couldn't feel the seer's arms around him, Robin still felt safe and secure in the younger male's grasp.

* * *

The next task was to reintroduce Robin to everybody. Shulk took the tactician around by his hand and started walking him around the mansion. Whenever they saw somebody else, Shulk stopped them and told the other to say hello to Robin. Most of the time, they were skeptical at first, not unlike Reflet. Several of the Smashers even berated Shulk for trying to make a robot that looked like the deceased tactician. After a few times, Robin stopped getting embarrassed by their responses. Knowing they were coming, he lashed back quickly after the fourth or fifth time. One particularly irritating response came from none other than the angel of light himself, Pit.

"No. way." The brunet angel sounded shocked as he looked at Shulk and Robin. "Why do you get a robot girlfriend before I do? That's just not fair at all!" Robin clenched his fists and Shulk was afraid that Pit might have activated the tactician's Attack Mode. Thankfully, that didn't seem to be the case, as his eyes were still brown.

"First of all!" Robin barked, walking up to the angel and shouting down at him while grabbing his scarf. "I am not a girl! I am Robin, the High Deliverer, Grandmaster Tactician of Ylisse! Second of all, I am not a robot! I have the ability to think for myself! My body may be metal, but my brain still works as it used to when I had a completely flesh body! And third of all...!" Just then, a short jingle played, followed by an announcement over the loudspeakers.

 _Will Shulk and Robin please come to Master Hand's room?_ The voice said. Pit smirked as he pushed himself out of Robin's grasp.

"Ooh, looks like you're in trouble~" He teased. "I wonder what kind of punishment will be in store~" Smashers only got called out to Master Hand's room when they were in deep trouble, after all. Of course, Pit didn't think that it could be Master Hand just wishing to see Robin again, seeing as he had been declared dead before. Robin wanted to chase Pit down again, but the angel had dashed away and Master Hand was waiting. Shulk placed a hand on the tactician's shoulder, shaking his head visibly.

"Forget about him. Let's just go." And with that, the two hurried away toward the Hand's room.

There was a large door in front of the room that towered ominously over the two humanoids. Robin's hand just barely grazed the door and it shot open in an instant. He snapped back a step out of surprise, and both of the young men entered cautiously. A couple seconds after they had both entered, the door slammed shut loudly, causing both Robin and Shulk to gasp loudly. Just then, a booming voice took up the entire room.

"Ah, so it's true~!" The voice said. "You're really back, Robin! I'm actually quite surprised to see you!" The relaxed tone of Master Hand's voice put the two men at ease.

"You wanted to see me too?" Shulk asked, stepping forward so he could get a better view of the large hand. Master Hand gesticulated dismissively.

"I mostly just called you here to tell you that Samus has given me permission to move you back to your original room with Robin, if you so wish. She told me that you might have interest in moving back in with him, considering he's a Mechon. It's Robin I was more interested in seeing, but I suppose you can stay here as well as we discuss matters of making sure Robin can get back involved with the tournament."

"Wait, you want me to still participate even though I look like this?" Robin looked down at his mechanical body, even if it was half covered up by his Plegian robe. Master Hand gave the tactician a thumbs up.

"But of course!" He said. "That's why you signed up to come here, right? Participate in a friendly sport, make new friends, and help defend the multiverse if trouble should arise. I'm not sure something to the level of what happened during the previous tournament would occur again, but just in case, I'd like you to be able to help. Of course, I don't want you to develop a new fighting style in the middle of the tournament either, as that would throw everybody off. We need to figure out how you'd be able to function as you used to before your accident."

"...I can just fight like I used to, can't I?" Robin suggested. "I mean, I'm sure I can still use my tomes without any issues. Same for my Levin Sword." Master Hand gave a brief thumbs down before returning to a neutral pose.

"But the fact that you have other abilities available now means you might forget in the heat of battle and activate one of them." The Hand said. "You might use that jet pack on your back in order to save yourself from being KOed when in other circumstances you would fall into the Blast Line, for example."

"Or you might activate that aggressive red eyed mode you used against the Mechon back on Bionis." Shulk chimed in. Robin shot the younger male a quick glare before redirecting his attention back to Master Hand.

"Well, the easiest way to make sure I'd be able to battle as normal again would be to get my human body back." He pleaded. "I hate this body. I would like to have my old one back. You have extremely powerful magic, right? You'd be able to restore my body back to normal!" The glove sighed.

"As much as I would like to, it would take some time to prepare a spell in order to do so. You would be out of commission from the tournament for a ridiculously long time if you waited for your human body back." The mage sighed and turned around, looking quite dejected. In doing so, he revealed the plug on the back of his neck for Master Hand. "...Wait, is that a plug on your neck?" It caused Robin to spin back around at least.

"...I guess so." A robotic hand reached back and rubbed across the two pin holes in his neck. He couldn't actually feel them, however, thanks to the lack of nerves in his fingers. "What about them?"

"Turn around again." Master Hand made a beckoning motion with his index finger, and Robin did as asked after giving a brief shrug. Once the plug was in plain sight again, the disembodied hand dramatically pointed at it with his finger, a rainbow colored light coming out of it. When the energy actually hit Robin, he yelped loudly before raising his hands back to his neck once more, even despite being unable to feel anything back there. A second later, he turned around in a flash.

"What in Naga's name was that?!" He hissed. "That felt really weird! What did you do?" A loud laugh boomed through the room before the hand replied.

"I just put the same restriction on you that I did with R.O.B.." He answered. "Your abilities have been restricted to the ones you currently use in the tournament, and you can feel pain out on the battlefields, just as you did while human. Not to worry, though, it only activates out on the tournament grounds." Robin blinked once before dropping his hands.

"...I guess that's not that bad." The cyborg nodded his head. "From the way it felt, I thought it was far worse..."

"Hey, there's a piece of metal covering up your neck now. It has the Super Smash Brothers insignia on it, too." Shulk pointed, out, tapping the piece of metal in question. It echoed as expected from a thin sheet of metal. "I guess that also solves the problem of having an open plug on your neck as well. Don't want anybody putting things in there and hurting either you or them or both, after all... Or rain getting in there, among other things."

"You have a point." Robin replied. "Well, I guess that settles that. We can go now, right?" Master Hand gave another thumbs up and let the two leave, supposedly to go continue reintroducing Robin to the other Smashers. After watching them walk out of the room, the glove sighed loudly before talking seemingly to himself.

 

"...Maybe this time he'll actually be rescued." He mused solemnly. "I didn't make the same mistake I did three timelines ago now. But my brother and I are running out of energy for many more resets... This better be the timeline... I refuse to lose to him... Not again..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5412 words. And we're done here. Next up is going to be more shenanigans revolving around Mecha-Robin and how he deals with his new body that he loathes so much. Maybe there will be more information about what Master Hand was referring to, as well. Anyway, time for notes:
> 
> 1\. For those not so familiar with the Mechon types, [this](http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/xenoblade/images/5/51/Mechon_M48_Sentry_Unit.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/155?cb=20120911013204) is a Mechon M44 and [this](http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/xenoblade/images/a/a3/Mechon_M69.jpg/revision/latest/scale-to-width-down/200?cb=20120825170258) is a Mechon M53 (ignore the numbers in those URLs, they use the same Mechon designs for several different numbers). The former has a large protrusion sticking out of its back whereas the latter has a large claw, which were what Robin used as weapons in his little outburst. And no, M44s don't actually appear on Bionis' Leg (M53s do, however), I just wanted to write in a small Mechon that would be able to land on Robin's back and not immediately trample him into the ground.
> 
> 2\. Robin actually has several different "modes" that were installed, all represented by his eyes changing color. Red is obviously an Attack Mode that activates around enemies, whereas green is a little less obvious. It's essentially Protect Mode, which activates whenever Shulk is in danger of being hurt. Attack Mode's main directive is to eliminate all the aggressive foes, whereas Protect Mode's main directive is to prevent harm to the target, more often than not Shulk due to how much Robin cares about him. Master Hand's actions ended up installing a Smash Mode for tournament battles, but this mode is different because if the plug that was inserted in Robin's neck was removed, he would lose his Smash Mode. There are other modes that have not been revealed yet and will be talked about later on.
> 
> 3\. Like with Fiora's Mechon body, Robin also possesses drones on his back. These enable him to fly for a short period of time, as seen with him flying back up with Shulk in tow. They don't have any purpose aside from that, however, unlike how Fiora's drones have battle capabilities. They also stay near Robin's body due to a powerful magnetism that isn't even disrupted by his robe. The drones are currently unnamed, but I personally like calling them the Grim Drones.
> 
> Also he knew that the drones were there and how they worked despite never using them prior due to programming that was installed in his head by Obsidian Face's system. Yes, Obsidian Face really did install things into his head, as Robin feared. The aforementioned modes were pre-installed into his body by Egil, however (except Smash Mode, of course).

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Black Dragon, White Soul](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5072098) by [Ryeaugla](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla)




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